Do Hedge Funds Love CenterState Banks Inc (CSFL)?

Due to the fact that CenterState Banks Inc (NASDAQ:CSFL) has witnessed falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital cut the largest stake of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, comprising about $3.7 million in stock, and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $1.9 million worth of shares. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to CenterState Banks Inc (NASDAQ:CSFL). We will take a look at ArcBest Corp (NASDAQ:ARCB), Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:BTE), First NBC Bank Holding Company (NASDAQ:FNBC), and TCP Capital Corp (NASDAQ:TCPC). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to CSFL’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $27 million. That figure was $110 million in CSFL’s case. ArcBest Corp (NASDAQ:ARCB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, TCP Capital Corp (NASDAQ:TCPC) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. CenterState Banks Inc (NASDAQ:CSFL) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ARCB might be a better candidate to consider a long position.